The Archives
An encyclopaedia of the lions of the wild: their names, their prides, their reigns and their legacies.
BDeceasedBibi The Grandmother of the MarshJuly 1998 – 6 December 2015The longest-lived lioness of the Marsh Pride, star of the BBC’s Big Cat Diary, who survived a buffalo attack as a cub and life as an outcast mother before she was poisoned by herders in 2015 at 17.Read the full record EDeceasedElsa Elsa the Lionessc. 28 January 1956 – 24 January 1961The orphaned cub raised by Joy and George Adamson who became the first lioness known to be returned successfully to the wild, and whose story, Born Free, changed how the world saw lions.Read the full record MFate unknownMa di Tau Mother of LionsFilmed in the late 2000sThe lioness of Botswana’s Okavango Delta whose fight to save her cubs from a rival pride, crocodiles and buffalo became the National Geographic film The Last Lions.Read the full record LDeceasedLady Liuwa The Last Lionessc. 2000 – 9 August 2017The only lion left alive on Zambia’s Liuwa Plain after poaching wiped out the rest, who lived alone for years before a new pride was built around her, and died at about 17.Read the full record KDisappearedKamunyak The Blessed Onec. 1999 – last seen c. 2004A young lioness of Kenya’s Samburu reserve who, from December 2001, adopted at least six newborn oryx calves, her natural prey, and guarded them as her own.Read the full record SFate not confirmedSummer Queen of the PrideFilmed c. 2021 – 2025The ageing queen of a great Masai Mara pride and mother of Kio, whose devotion to her last cub is the heart of the 2026 National Geographic series LION.Read the full record WFate unknownWinter Summer’s SisterFilmed c. 2021 – 2025One of the three sister lionesses, with Summer and Autumn, who lead the great Masai Mara pride followed in National Geographic’s LION.Read the full record AFate unknownAutumn Summer’s SisterFilmed c. 2021 – 2025One of the three sister lionesses, with Summer and Winter, who lead the great Masai Mara pride followed in National Geographic’s LION.Read the full record SDeceasedSilver Eye The Silver-Eyed LionessDied after c. 2011The one-eyed, cub-killing leader of the rival pride in The Last Lions, who became one of the most effective hunters Dereck Joubert ever followed, and in the end hunted beside her old enemy Ma di Tau.Read the full record SDeceasedSienna Sienac. 2004 – December 2015A Marsh Pride lioness who recovered from terrible injuries, only to die with Bibi in December 2015 after herders laced a cow carcass with poison.Read the full record SPresumed deadSilver Eye of Talamati Queen Silver Eyec. 2007/08 – 2022A one-eyed lioness of South Africa’s Talamati Pride who lived under the Matimba, Selati, Birmingham and Avoca males and raised three litters to adulthood before disappearing in 2022.Read the full record CFate unknownCharm The Marsh MatriarchDates not publishedThe Marsh Pride lioness who held her family together after the males abandoned it and poison killed her companions, the heroine of David Attenborough’s Dynasties.Read the full record KLivingKito Charm’s DaughterUnknown – presentCharm’s daughter, the collared lioness who leads the six-female Marsh Pride of the Masai Mara under the Topi Boys.Read the full record